Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-07-16
PoooNIP AND CHINOOK.
Remarkable Climatic Phenomena of tf,
 Great Basin Region.


 Great Basin Region.
 The ''pogonip'' is Nevada phe. nomenon, while the chinook belongs to Montana. The whites first made the acquaintance of the pogonip about twenty years ago, when they went to White Pine County, at the time of the striking of the almost pure silver on Treasure Hill Treasure City, on the peak of Treasure Hill, thousands of feet above the level of the sea, is the true home and stamping ground of the pogo nip. The pogonip. so feared, is sort of frozen fog that fills the air at times in winter. It often appears on the clearest and brightest of days, coming suddenly from no one knows whence. In an instant the air is filled with float ing needles of ice To breathe the pogo nip is death to the lungs. When it comes people rush to cover The In- dians dread it as much as the whites. They discovered the pogonip long ago. Pogonip is an Indian word, the very sound of which describes the phenomenon to which it is applied. It is the same with the Piute word for cold. The word is "oo-zoot-zoo, and is full of shake and shiver. The pogonip appears to be caused by the sudden freezing in the air of the moisture which collects about the summit of high peaks.
 To stand in valley mile or two be- low and look up at the top of a mount tin on which pogonip has appeared is sight beautiful and peculiar. In all directions the cloudless heavens are 1cep, calm blue-if color can be said to be calm. The top of the peak is hidden in the pogonip, which is as bril- liant under the light of the sun as those parhelia seen about the sun in Artic regions, but it is a moving, shape less mass of luminosity. From this glittering cloud bright streamers are often seen stretching away from the mountain peak, that look like the waver- ing and flashing wires that are shot up ward by the aurora borealis. These ribbons of fiery light stretch away in direction opposite to that from which the wind is blowing. They are evi- dently shreds and strips of the pogo nip that are torn off and waited away by the gale.
 On the top of the mountain the poponip is so dense that one can see through it to the distance of only a few yards. The air is filled with minute and slender crystals of ice. These strik- ing together produce a slight, con- tinuous rustling sound. Breathed into the lungs they prick like needles. The phenomenon of the pogonip is to be seen in winter in very many places in Nevada about the tops of high mount aims, also about most of the tall peaks all through the Great Basin region.
 While the coming of the ''pogonip" is dreaded, the advent of the ''chinook" is heartily welcomed. The chinook means warm weather. It is phenom- enally warm south or southwesterly wind that strikes down into Montana, Idaho, and other northern and snowy regions lying east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and even into the regions far to the eastward of the Rocky mount aYns.
 Ut is in mild way sort-af sirocco; bit is without the 1Toxfous7 qualities o- the sirocco that blows from the Libyan deserts into Italy and Sicily. It appears l to be a mixture of the dry, heated air of the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, rising and mingling with the warm but moister breezes moving eastward off the Pacific Ocean, Somewhere in the upper regions-high above the tops of all the mountains-these currents of air meet, mingle, and finally descend upon the l snowclad regions of the north, just where they are wanted and prayed for.
 Before the chinook the snowdrifts melt as before blast of hot air blown through tube and directed against them. As if by magic, the snowy GOV ering of the hills and valleys disappears. The atmosphere is everywhere warm and balmy. So much moisture has been taken up by the air during the process of melting away the snow that ths breezes are soft and sweet as those ot spring.
 When old winter howls and prowls through the territories of our northern neighbors, and the whole face of tho country lies buried in snow, no wonder that we see in their newspapers SC many appeals to the ''clerk of tho weather to send then the '.blessed chinook. '--Dare de Guile, in NrginiC Enterprise.